As a teen myself who never rides without a helmet and takes safety seriously I’ve gotten a couple “helmets are lame” comments from my friends (one of which had a longboard accident without any protection didn’t hit his head thankfully but had some good road rash and I laughed at him for it) but it doesn’t bother me too much. After seeing the session error video I decided that no matter what people thought of me I would gear up for every ride. On a more positive note I was messing around with my board in an elementary school parking lot this weekend and a groups of little kids aproached me and started asking some questions about my board and one of them said “I like your helmet it’s really cool looking” and that made me feel good and have some hope in the future teens
It is a sweet helmet!
I would have approached them… I’ve done things like this before.
Walks up to kids “Hey guys, check this out. This board can push me up to 50mph if I want. Have you guys ever had a car run a stop sign in front of you going that fast? It’s happened to me, I’m here partly thanks to my helmet and other safety gear.”
“I’ve got a wife and daughter. It would be devastating to them if I were to die in a situation like that one I just mentioned. I’ll do anything I can to make sure I can keep living. At least 3 times in the last 25 years of skating, my helmet has literally kept me alive three times. Three times doesn’t sound a lot, but that’s at least three deaths I didn’t have.”
“If you guys decide one day to ride a skateboard, think for yourself- how much does living, or not becoming a retard who hit their head and can’t talk or walk anymore mean to you?”
“This shits fun as fuck and it can only be fun when your alive. Take it easy guys.”
Zips off
Tell them their Mom didn’t mind the helmet last night OOOOOOO
In your best Heath Ledger voice: “You want to know how I got these scars?”
this is a really good one!
“if you fall, would you rather look “lame” andwalk away or look cool and become paralyzed?”
as in your user name implies knowledge of physics, and knowledge of physics would lead to helmet wearing, in contradiction to your statement of not wearing a helmet until recently. and the humor is lost if one has to explain, sorry!
I would just smile and say “don’t be jelly kiddos. Maybe your mommy and daddy can buy you one too. K thx bye!” Then give them the old school “shocker” hand gesture. Keep it positive and take their criticisms as compliments.
Or if you want to be more sassy about the helmet comments, say "OMG, that’s what your mom said before she dropped you on your head as a baby. Your mom tells me EVERYTHING. or Your mom yells out all kinds of things during sex. " Then wink and smile at them.
Little fuckers.
Or politely tell them to find you and say that when they’re 18 
Invest in an air horn
Had a group of teenagers yell at our group why wear helmets it’s ride or die. We are all 30+ years old what we did is ignore them keep riding. I would be dead twice now with out a helmet so politely go fuck your self
The only issue is if they intercept you on your path. As soon as it becomes a physical ‘game’… 🤷
I agree with battosaii, it’s silly/unbecoming for an adult to get flustered enough to throw hands* 
*Depends on their age, obviously
I would have chosen the more educational way : i’ll ask one of them to ride the board but I have the controller, and I’ll either start abruptly (falling backwards) or normal starts but getting more and more speed At more than 40, everybody would like a little protection at least
Derek… He was a healthy fit giant of a man, knew how to ride and surf. Usually wears a helmet except that one sad day he decided to test out a new build and didn’t bring it out with him. RIP @BigBoyToys Miss riding with you.
When I was a teenage, I didn’t wear a helmet biking until a cop pulled me over and told me it was a law for people under 18 to have helmets. I HATED wearing that thing and took it off whenever I could. Skateboarding is another problem. I never wore a helmet doing that either because there was very little risk going at 3 mph attempting tricks as a n00b, I knew how to roll off that kinda of fall. The problem is that this is what these teenage think esk8 is, potentially flying off your board at 15-30+ mph doesn’t mean you can react in the same manner.
I went snowboarding wearing a beany 10 years ago or so, just slowly going down the bunny slope, eventually got more comfortable and started carving. Next thing you know I was on my back and blacked out for a bit. When I came to, I looked up and wasn’t able to move for like 20 seconds. Pretty sure it was a concussion.
Sadly there isn’t much you can do with these “cool” kids. It’s their life lesson to eventually learn. Most of us need our heads and body intact in order to make an income for this stuff, so the more protected we are, the longer we can enjoy this.
So much good advice here. I would have just head butted them with my helmet.
Don’t take my advice
There’s no lesson learned in most of the examples we give or cook up. When someone dies, or becomes paralyzed whatever they may or may not learn is useless.
The hope of someone “learning a lesson” this way is futile.
You see this in the movies quite often. One guy blasts another guys brains out and says, “that’ll learn ya”. Nope, they didn’t learn anything.
Usually when someone disses my safety gear I tell them I like keeping my skin on my body and this thing goes 30+ and I fall off all the time anyways. That usually shuts them up.
So here is my more serious reply. There was a Project Manager at my biggest supplier of composite assemblies in Salt Lake City. Good guy to work with. Energetic. Knew his stuff. Liked rock climbing. Apparently he didn’t like wearing a helmet. The brain damage he suffered was in the region that dominates speech. He tried to come back to work about six months later but he couldn’t say a word without stuttering it five times. He didn’t work for long. It was just too frustrating. Imagine that, with all your thoughts intact, but you can’t say them to anyone. I put the helmet on before I turn the board on.
Teenagers have better hearing. Some shops have to install a white noise to stop them loitering. They hate white noise.
You have a big battery & a remote second channel, with a driver and a big speaker drive, get creative & stay legal
http://www.icstation.com/white-noise-signal-generator-electronic-channel-output-module-p-12589.html
Just shout back as loud as possible that you have the power of god and anime on your side!